June 30, 2007

From the land of fact based non-emotional journalism we get...

A childs plea: 'Please close Guantanamo jail so I can see my daddy and give him a hug'

Yes, that is the headline. A shining example of journalistic objectivity.

Well, sounds a lil one-sided:

Johaina Aamer recalls very little of the final precious moments she spent with her father before the bombs started falling in Afghanistan.

She remembers him pretending to be a lion and chasing her and her two brothers around the garden and then running for cover as the explosions crept closer. After that, her mind is blank.

But in paintings and pictures the nine-year-old has unlocked her subconscious to tell a horrifying story of the American invasion, her father's capture and his 2,000 days spent as a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay.

Her art reveals the anguish of an ordinary south London family who have been enduring their own private Guantanamo hell, not knowing why father and husband, Shaker Aamer, was taken from them. Two years ago, Johaina wrote a letter to Tony Blair saying that when she saw him on television with George Bush she switched channels.